The CDC is reporting that preschoolers teeth are in really bad shape. For the first time in 40 years, the number of preschoolers with cavities rose in the most recent study conducted from 5 years ago.
Dentists everywhere are confirming this trend. More and more preschoolers from all income levels have 6 -10 or even more cavities. It doesn’t seem to matter if the child gets regular checkups or whether good tooth brushing habits are followed.
The decay is often so severe that the teeth are literally crumbling out of a child’s mouth and surgery is immediately recommended. Multiple fillings and root canals in a single visit necessitates general anesthesia as a child that young cannot sit still for the length of time required to fix so many severely rotting teeth.
Something is obviously very, very wrong with the diet of the vast majority of children to cause such terrible dental health at such a young age.
Constant snacking on refined carbohydrates and juice is no doubt a big part of the problem as is the complete void of nutrient dense foods in most children’s diets.
Fortunately, more parents are discovering the power of simple dietary changes to save their children’s teeth. I’ve written before on how I healed my own child’s cavity in a few weeks with dietary change alone. No filling was ever required for that tooth.
How about severe and rampant decay in a preschooler’s mouth, however?
If you think that your child’s teeth are beyond help and surgery is the only option, think again. This Mom’s video below of how it only took 5 days for severe decay to stop with dietary change alone is sure to change your thinking about the possibilities for your own child.
Warning: Dentists will likely ridicule this approach as they were never taught that cavities can heal in dental school, but the fact is that tooth decay can be reversed and renowned dentist Dr. Weston A. Price wrote about it in his book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. Just because your dentist doesn’t believe it doesn’t mean it doesn’t work.
At the very least it’s worth a shot before putting your child through surgery, wouldn’t you agree?
The protocol the Mom in the video below used for reversing severe decay in her young child is outlined in detail in the book Cure Tooth Decay, by Rami Nagel. I highly recommend this book as a must read if you are having cavity problems in your child or even in yourself. You can sign up for Rami’s very informative, free newsletter by clicking here.
The Mother was told surgery was the only way to go for her daughter due to the severity of the decay.
The dentist was wrong.
Only simple dietary changes were required to fix the problem without any surgery required!
If natural approaches to dental health are appealing to you, don’t forget to register for the FREE HealThy Mouth World Summit coming up on January 13-20, 2013!
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Sources: Rise in Preschoolers Cavities Prompts Anesthesia Use
Trends in Oral Health Status, CDC
|
|
{ 120 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi,
This is a great story. How long did you follow the protocol? Have you introduced grains back into her diet?
I have a friend whose child had early tooth decay. I know they tried a few Weston A. Price things but nothing worked. The doctor said that since they were baby teeth that it didn’t matter. Her adult teeth grew in fine. I don’t think her child had any surgery. I think they just let things be. It wasn’t pretty, but the child is fine. I’ll have to ask for more details to share.
Great post! Very informative. It is heartbreaking for parents to see their kids cry because of severe toothache…Yeah, too much sugars on the food we feed them with could be a culprit and so we must be keen with our kid’s diet.
Weston A. Price was a dentist after all. Thanks healthyhomeeconomist for posting this and continuing to spread the word. None of my 3 children have ever had a single cavity or dental issue.
http://www.mcssl.com/app/?af=1495698
That’s awesome! And it was done without fermented cod liver oil and butter oil! Wow!
Because they weren’t breast fed but were HFCS formula fed instead.
Not true, and not fair. Maybe that contributes in some cases, but I have a kid with tooth decay (and two without) who was breastfed. Until he was 3. Furthermore, he and his siblings eat the same foods. Only he has the decay issues. It’s more than diet.
Unfortunately, this is not true.. Breast is best, but it does not override the damage of other foods in the diet. It keeps your kids from getting sick, but it does not prevent tooth decay once other foods are introduced. My son was breastfed and has severe tooth decay. Contributing factors in my case are my inlaw caregivers who meant no harm sharing foods and drinks from their decay filled mouths despite my telling them NOT to, constantly feeding him processed puffed cereals and other nutrient-lacking foods, all day sipping on sippy cups, and my son’s early development of teeth in the firsth place! He had a mouthful before age one.
REturn to motherhood, stop giving small children sugar
Wow. So thankful to have stumbled across Nourishing Traditions and then WAPF a couple years before getting pregnant. I can’t even imagine how teeth can get that bad. My 4 year old hardly brushes his strong healthy teeth. It’s all about nutrition and diet! Thanks for sharing.
So happy to hear from another mom that her 4 year old hardly brushes his strong healthy teeth. Same here! Sometimes I feel guilty for not making him brush every day, but he eats a WAPF diet, and his teeth are beautiful!
Kristen – I can’t remember the last time my boys, 4 and 7, brushed their teeth. They have no cavities and their teeth appear strong and healthy!
And how long until the dentists come out to hound you…
Diet and health connected? I thought we were trying to create jobs here!
Soli Zat Johnson Yes, the dentists will descend on this post within a day or so and start calling me stupid and all manner of insults as they will insist that cavities cannot and will not heal. Amusing really how blockheaded so many of them are!
If people on a mass level start to follow the WAPF protocol for reversing tooth decay, the bad oral health gravy train will start to dry up – that simple. The argument for dentists has nothing to do with science but business.
High Brix Nutrient Dense Foods\’s last post: Benefits of High Brix Nutrient Dense Farmed Foods Part 4: Vitamins, Antioxidants and other Phytochemicals
Fortunately, more and more dentists are realizing that Dr. Price was right all along and cavities can indeed heal with proper nutrition!
http://www.mommypotamus.com/can-a-weston-a-price-diet-reverse-tooth-decay/
http://www.mommypotamus.com/i-kissed-toothpaste-goodbye/
Stop blaming sugar. It is not the root of all evil. And lots of ‘healthy’ families have kids with rotting teeth.
# Heather Alger Dessinger
I am not so sure on this. My two year old was and is exclusively breastfed, doesn’t drink juice or cows milk and we eat pretty whole with grass feed meats and organic veg. Her teeth crumbled, all but five of them. I was told it was the breastfeeding (of course) then was told it was a lack of enamel.
Me too. I have four kids, and two have bad teeth. I am 36 and have never had a cavity, so I was quite surprised when my oldest had many cavities diagnosed (and obvious to the eyes) at age 4. I have had times of better and worse nutrition. As a child, we were poor, and ate non-processed food, cooked from scratch, but plenty of grains and sugar.
It’s not so much amusing as it is really sad. So many parents spend a lot of money on their children’s teeth when diet alone would cure them. I know of a couple that has put a lot of money into their young son’s teeth. Money they really don’t have. It’s dramatic for kids to have their teeth worked on. Dentists seem like used car salesmen to me at least the last dentist I saw did.
On a side note, I have a friend who had very bad gums from years of bad diet and drug use. Just changing diet alone has improved them greatly and visibly. This person just began daily cod liver oil (can’t think of a better time than winter)… Can’t wait to suggest some coconut oil pulling too!!!
Jessica Morse check this out!
I know a mother who gave her babies coca-cola in their baby bottles… I’m not kidding.
That is so very sad.
Following “Cure Tooth Decay” protocol doesn’t work for everyone. Following the GAPS Diet didn’t help either. Still use FCLO/BO Blend as well. For years. Nothing halted my 3.5 year olds tooth decay. So incredibly frustrating. 5 days to see results, I’m jealous. 2 years of struggle didn’t net me those results!
I’m right there with you. Have been doing everything (for years) and both kids still have lots of cavities and new ones all the time. Makes me feel like a horrible mom.
Brandi, Debbie, and the others here not getting the results you want in preventing and reversing tooth decay, I have found the following can help as an addition to the WAPF basic diet and Ramiel’s protocol.
(1) Try taking MinCol, made by Daily manufacturing or make your own if you don’t care for capsules. For an overview of what Mincol is and does check out:http://www.advancedideals.org/019_calcium_questions.html#Anchor-WHY-7431. In short, the person who created Mincol, “If the teeth have fillings or cavities, this is because they are deficient in the colloid phosphate form of calcium and fluoride. Women that have not been provided the proper mineral during the pregnancy will lose the mineral from their mineral ‘storehouses,’ starting with their teeth, as nature will give priority for the fetus and draw the mineral for its formation and development. This is why so many women remark their teeth went bad after they had children.” (Biological Ionization as Applied to Human Nutrition, p. 166). Mincol would be in abundant supplies in our foods if it wasn’t for soils being depleted of it and hence virtually all of our crops, organic or not. Bone meal is the next best source of the mineral colloid (MIncol).
(2) You might have a situation where the body chemistry is nitpicky. Kris Johnson touched upon this below. Within the WAPF community, so many different ways of customizing one’s diet exist. I expand upon one that I mentioned in a comment below.
In Reams Biological Theory of Ionization (RBTI) as applied to human health, several tooth decay patterns exist. Please keep in mind this is a generalization, so exceptions can exist. That said, severe tooth decay is a symptom of deficiency of foods that have calcium phosphate as their prominent calcium compound. (1) Thus, you need to add bone meal into the diet. I recommended chewing bones of pasture raised chicken and ocean fish like sardine or anchovy. If your child cannot handle these, you need to grind up bones of fish or grass fed animals or find an online source that this ready in supplement form. Generally you will need somewhere between 500 mg and 2g per meal. (2) You need to go to the USDA database and eat foods that have calcium phosphate as the dominant calcium compound and focus on the ones that have the highest calcium content: carrots, cabbage,beets, leafy greens, sweet potato, eggplant, cauliflower, celery, oatmeal, okra, barley, persimmon, bone broth, and root crops. (3) Take Mincol with every meal.
Tooth decay, when not severe, falls into the high pH pattern. This means the pH of urine and saliva or one of them exceeds 6.7 and you need to get it between 6.2 and 6.7, ideally 6.4. You need to invest in a pH meter or, as a more affordable option, a kit. Pike Agri-Lb Supplies has both. You need to emphasize foods in your diet that have dominant calcium compound of phosphate and calcium sulfate, AKA, gypsum. Thus you have to consume a significant part of your diet of the following foods that have gypsum as their dominant calcium compound: kefir, buttermilk, sour cream, raspberry, apple, blackberry, cranberry, sour blueberry, pineapple, pomegranate, strawberries, sour cherries, apple cider vinegar, oranges, grapefruit, mandarin, and sour plums. Something from this list and the calcium phosphate list needs to be consumed every meal. Also, include a food that has dominant calcium compound of calcium gluconate every meal from the following list of foods: cottage cheese, milk, goat’s milk, butter, cream. Use unbuffered vitamin C sources to move down the pH, such as rose hips, acercola berry, Indian gooseberry, etc. .5g to 2g 1-4 times a day in between meals. For more sources search for foods very high in vitamin C, such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_C. . You may need to take out FCLO, as it increases pH. Include a different food from each of the above calcium compounds in each meal. Another group that can be used in this pattern, though not as important, is foods containing the prominent compound of dolomite (calcium magnesium carbonate): fish, molasses, papaya, coconut, mango, pear, sea grapes, sorghum, and salsify As an estimate, 70-85% of your diet will come from foods that have calcium phosphate, gluconate, sulfate and dolomite as the dominant calcium compounds. So this means you need to cut down on, but still eat daily, foods from the other two calcium groups, which are calcium carbonate and oxide. Foods that have dominant source of calcium oxide are banana, kelp, onion, potato, leeks, garlic, buckwheat, rice, wheat, rye, loquat, sweet blueberry, carob, corn, peas, beans, nuts, tomato, Jerusalem artichoke, guava and peaches. Foods that have calcium carbonate as dominant calcium compound include: meats, avocado, green beans, nectarine, broccoli, olives, olive oil, sesame oil, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, squash, cherries, sweet plum, sweet grapes, cheese, mushrooms, and millet. Go very easy on the cheese because it has lots of calcium, just not the right type for this pattern. You need to test initially 2-3 times a day 2 hours after a meal for several days and then at least twice a day 2 times a week. If you start seeing changes in the pH, you will probably need to make adjustments in the diet according the numbers you get from the pH reading. See below for resources.
If this diet is not enough, you need to try other approaches. RBTI uses supplements when foods don’t work by themselves, as the vast majority of the above foods today are calcium decent because of soil depletion. So in this case, RBTI recommends you would use calcium lactate as a temporary measure to bring down the pH and keep it down where it needs to be. It needs to be taken with meals. If the idea of supplements doesn’t sit well with you, experiment with buttermilk solids, which are what goes on the bottom of a container of buttermilk below the water part. Add the solids to meals. My source for 100% grass fed raw buttermilk is Swiss Connection http://www.swissconnectioncheese.com/ – they ship anywhere. Or, try colonics, which works very well with stubbornly high pH that needs to be lowered. Or do a fast, something very effective if the above measures don’t work. If you get as far as to exploring colonics, you need to get 2 RBTI texts to do the whole program or contact me. They are Biological Theory of Ionization as Applied to Human Nutrition by Alexander Beddoe, DDS and course on RBTI by Michael Olszta.
Preserve. Keep researching and trying new approaches. And refrain from beating yourselves up! Instead, commend yourselves for sticking with a program most people don’t have the discipline or foresight to try and stick with.
Best Wishes,
Jamil Avdiyev
I been struggling for a year and not getting anywhere. Just see her teeth getting worse. I tried so many things and spent hundreds of dollars n also spent many nights crying….Why can’t I get good results? :’( If anyone could pm and help me along the way, I’d be so thankful
I think genetics plays a huge role here too, as does the mother’s diet before conception, and during pregnancy, of course. We haven’t always eaten super-healthy, although we do now, and none of my five kids have any tooth decay.
Coconut oil pulling has done wonders for my mouth and my overall health!
Do you have a favorite website to go to on how oil pulling is done? Thanks!
Anecdotal of course, but many of the women I know who have children with crumbling teeth had IV antibiotics during labor for a positive Strep B test. Seems the antibiotics prevents the child from getting seeded with any beneficial bacteria from birth which negatively impacts nutrient absorption.
Can that situayion be reversed with diet alone?
Does anyone know a healing protocol for gingivitis?? I’m already on a paleo diet, but I have Celiac. I’ve been having gum issues for my entire life.
Oil pulling for this will work very well. Coconut oil is the nicest oil. I thought I would gag with doing it, but its does not feel oily in the process.
Any word that ends in -itis means inflammation which is a symptom of a deficiency of essential fats. The body’s most powerful natural anti-inflammatory PGE1 prostaglandin is made ONLY from UNprocessed and unadulterated natural organic omega-6 linoleic acid as found in Evening Primrose oil capsules, the Flora brand of Sunflower, Safflower, and Pumpkinseed oils, and Hempseed oils, all of which are usually only sold at vitamin and health food stores. Do not use Hain sunflower or safflower, they are adulterated processed cooking oils.
Even though you’re on a Paleo diet make sure you get plenty of regular daily amounts of good fats, and do not avoid any of the good natural saturated fats like coconut oil, bacon grease or especially butter. 100 grams of good butter (a stick is usually 113 g) has 3%, 3 g, of naturally occurring omega-6 linolenic acid and 1% or 1 g of omega-3 alpha linolenic acid at an already perfectly balanced 3 to 1 ratio.
The body actually has up to 11 times more omega-6 based tissues and requirement than for omega-3, and there is no omega-3 in skin. It’s the omega-6 and omega-3 content of good butterfat that makes butter so good for us and especially for your skin.
The easiest way to get started is to get a bottle of Hempseed oil which also has an already perfectly balanced 3 to 1 ratio of omega-6 to omega-3. Or you can get a bottle of Evening Primrose oil capsules and a bottle of Flax seed oil capsules and take three evening Primrose caps to 1 flaxseed oil daily.
I was really amazed at how quickly the changes effect the teeth. You’d think it would be a longer process…
Andrea Goldman, have you tried high doses of vitamin C? It helped my sister. I think Adele Davis wrote about this.
We have a good diet and my daughter was ebf and her teeth had decay before solids and anything other than breastmilk was even introduced. We have done loads of research (probably much more than most of the previous commenters) and this is still a struggle for us. I wish everyone who hasn’t had to deal with tooth decay could step down from their high horse and be thankful instead of being judgemental. Show a little sympathy for goodness sake! This isn’t always diet related in the present. It could be from genetics passed down from parents and grandparents.
I haven’t read any comments from people that seem to be on a “high horse”. Perhaps genetics does play a role, but more importantly is the mother’s diet pre-conception and during pregnancy and breast feeding.
I am thankful, not judgemental, because I ate an atrocious diet during my pregnancy with my first son, yet he has beautiful teeth. I attribute it to the raw milk, grass fed and pastured meats, and organic veggies and fruits that he weaned on. I discovered Nourishing Traditions and the WAPF website when he was about 6 months old, and determined to transition our diets before he was a year old. To this day he gets very little processed food.
Best wishes to you and your daughter. I hope you find something that helps her decay.
This is one of the things that makes me so sad about having my kids living in 2 disparate worlds .. one house (mine) could get them this help & the other does not. They were just taken to the dentist w/o my knowledge where they each had a cavity filled.
We’re in the same boat Lisa! I wish I had a solution for dads that feed their kids lots of junk. Mine then dumps the responsibility for dealing with the resultant cavities on me – 6 at last check-up to the tune of $1500. At my place we eat grass fed meats, lots of organic vegetables and some fruit, no juice/pop/sugar, I have tried the FCLO/BO but I can’t seem to undo the negative influence at his dad’s.
My four children had constant cavities till we chucked the processed food and dramatically upped the natural animal fats. There have been no cavities since the day we switched. They were 8, 5, 3, & 1. It’s been nearly 5 years. Zero cavities.
I had no antibiotics during labor for any of them.
let’s see published data in a peer reviewed journal on this matter. Nothing more than a sales pitch!
You will never see “published data in a peer reviewed journal on this matter”, because there’s not an organization out there who would pay for the research. There’s no money for anyone to make by “proving” that people should ditch processed foods, eat raw dairy and grass fed and pastured meats. I worked in scientific research for 10 years, and I can assure you it’s not going to happen. This isn’t a sales pitch, it’s a mom sharing what worked to cure her young daughter’s tooth decay.
Time to throw out the peer review research and listen to your neighbor: they don’t have a corporate agenda to push. Ever wonder how we got to the place were nearly every product in the supermarket is not fit for consumption (pesticides and other toxic compounds, GMOs)?
Follow the money and you will see the agenda. I got interested in the WAPF because I could find no sales pitch or money trail, just kind people who are trying to inform. That is where you find truth, when there is little or no money involved.
I totally agree but never say never. My understanding based on accounts of insider perspectives is getting something like this to be submitted and looked at seriously will be no small feat. Too much politics exists in the system that prevents the scientific community at large from examining something like reversing tooth decay primarily though diet. Far too many people naively assume science to be some completely impartial mechanism where all ideas get equal weight and get accepted based on their merits – how idealistic and naive! These people obviously have not studied history.
I must admit longer term a self correcting mechanism does exist but I have no plans on siting around and waiting for these changes to happen. A start may be to read The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn. And yes it will likely take a massive paradigm shift among the dental community to inquire into this.
Do we have peer reviewed data showing that eating the trash most Americans eat keep the teeth healthy – conducive to optimal dental health? If no, then why recommend such a way of eating? First, we need to prove that eating the way most people eat diet works, right? Many dentists imply nutrition does not affect cavities, let alone reverse them – evidence please?
High Brix Nutrient Dense Foods\’s last post: Cravings for Sweets: A Nutrient Dense Farming Perspective
LOL It always cracks me up to see someone throw this type of comment in there. So should we all ignore real people sharing real results and allow ourselves to be “blinded by science”? It boggles the mind how some individuals prefer to let “scientific studies” dictate their beliefs, when there are so many factors that can effect the outcome. Just silly. It’s like saying “pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.” Like the old man in “The Wizzard of Ozz.”
Pat Keeley Calia sales pitch for what? Diet change? That’s free and what have you got to lose to try it? If you’re waiting for a peer reviewed study, you’ll be dead before that comes out as it won’t ever be studied as it won’t make anyone any money doing it so no one will ever fund it.
How about if we spent all that money spent fighting for the rights of people to consume and provide raw milk and used it for some scientific studies????
We have struggled for years using this diet to help with my sons tooth decay. For it to work we have to be incredibly strict. No Sugar period. No fruit no nothing. As he gets older I am finding it harder and harder to always be on top of what he eats and it doesn’t work well if we are not super strict…..
It worked for me … diet has already saved me many hundreds of dollars at the dentist. Glad I didn’t wait for “the science”. Waiting for “the science” is a risky and expensive proposition indeed and just keeps your dentist in a big house driving fancy cars.
While there are many factors to be considered, like the child’s diet, breastfeeding and brushing habits, I believe that the mother’s diet pre-pregnancy has a great deal to do with it. I have five sons and have breastfed all of them until 1.5 to 3 yrs. While my 1st son has never had a cavity, my others have had progressively worse issues with decay. My 3rd son had a partially enameled baby molar which, of course, ended up with decay. My 4th son had several cavities early on and my 5th son ended up with early severe decay and removal of his front four teeth. I changed to whole foods when I was pregnant with my 3rd son, but didn’t know about the possiblity of my own vitamin D deficiency until the issues with my youngest son’s teeth.
She never says what her diet was like before she switched? I am curious because we have been on a Weston Price diet for 4 years now, and my 3 year old had two teeth removed already. I have read Ramiel’s book, and the only place for us to go from here is to give up grains, which we have mostly done except for quinoa and buckwheat, and an occasional loaf of traditional sourdough bread. I am having a hard time swallowing Ramiel’s take on white flour. It really goes contrary to everything else I have ever read about traditional grain preparation, and he basically says most of what is in Nourishing Traditions on grains/nuts/beans/seeds is wrong. Weston Price foundation also has an article about lectins that says they shouldnt be a problem for a normal person to digest? I suspect GAPS plays a role in this somehow? It just seems like a healthy person without GAPS should be able to eat a Weston Price diet without worrying about tooth decay?
WAPF diet will not assure complete absence of tooth decay. Such a claim as getting perfect teeth contradicts the basic finding of Dr Price. That said, 100% immunity is possible, as he documented in his book in several instances. Without looking at my books for the page numbers, Ramiel has seen 90% success rate and so did Weston Price, give or take some margin of error. Obviously other factors account for the remaining 10% or so. Ramiel covers some of these in his book and this list does include digestion issue that has to do with malabsorption of food. Interestingly enough, Chinese Medicine has a pattern for this called deficiency of spleen chi and cavities are one sign of it. One that I don’t recall in the book but know can be a cause is stress. Another one is crops grown in depleted soils lacking calcium and something called electrochemical compound colloids. A third is body chemistry that needs a lot more attention in specifics than a basic Weston Price diet or even GAPS diet, for that matter. I am referring to RBTI. For more information on this see http://highbrixnutrientdensefoods.com/2012/11/02/more-on-electrochemical-compound-colloid-post-2/.
Thus, no magic bullet for perfect teeth exists but anyone who seriously wants to stop the bleeding and cultivate good dental health ought to try Ramiel’s protocol or the basic WAPF diet.
High Brix Nutrient Dense Foods\’s last post: Cravings for Sweets: A Nutrient Dense Farming Perspective
My partner had this problem growing up, though I don’t think it started when he was that young. He says it came from his father’s side of the family. I, on the other hand, have strong teeth and very few cavities, and we were both formula fed. Now, granted, that was back 30, almost 40 some odd years ago and things have definitely changed…
No healthy families would have kids with rotting teeth. Over consumption of sugar feeds bacteria and bacteria releases acid waste, equals rotting teeth. Over consumption of sugar also robs the body of nutrients, depletes your immune system, feeds gut bad bacteria. Ages you. Sadly children are constantly supplied junk today.
This is not true. We are an extremely healthy family and my daughter’s teeth began decaying at 2 years of age. She rarely drank juice or had any sweets prior to her decay.
Amanda, we are in the same boat as Christina. Very healthy Weston Price diet with lots of organ meats, no refined sugar, juice, or white flour at all. one child with teeth so rotten at age 3 they had to be removed. nobody else in our family of 5 has ever had a cavity.
There are a lot of healthy families on here that are going to disagree with you Amanda.
There is obviously an hereditary influence when only one child in family has a problem, but it could be that child has an unusually high need for some nutrient – vitamin D for getting calcium into the body, or vitamin K2 for assuring the calcium goes where it’s supposed to go – into teeth and bones. Since our foods are mostly grown on depleted soils these day, he could be missing a crucial trace mineral that is needed to overcome the problem. Is he getting plenty of probiotics (fermented foods) to assure a healthy gut that will absorb the nutrients. Did this child get mixed up with some toxin that is messing up his system? A visit to a naturopath or chiropractor who does nutritional testing might identify the problem and appropriate corrective measures.
i had to limit fruit (the only sugar we used) we did ozone, and GAPS for three months and the decay stopped!
Joselyn Hoffman Schutz how long were your children on GAPS? Did you consult with a GAPS practicioner about your lack of results?
We have been following a Wapf diet to years. I breastfed my children – first for 4 years and then second for 2 and counting. They eat lots off good fats and nutrient dense foods. I eat well and nutrient dense. We eat no refined sugar, sourdough any grains, but don’t eat tons. Like others have said, my first has beautiful, straight, perfectly spaced teeth. Even if she doesn’t consistently brush – no cavities. I found cavities in my second before she turned two. She had five filled in the chair because i caught them so early. Even with FCLO/BO there are more white spots coming on her teeth, dentist has given us some homeopathic stuff. Some I think is due to a lip tie and tighter teeth….but still so hard to deal with. There is not a lot more we could do diet wise….we don’t eat anything processed.
white spots? fluoride -water, rinse, selants???
sounds like us, with the second child. i suspect that it was my breastfeeding during pregnancy that caused my second child’s teeth to be poorly formed (pits) that led to decay. she also has hypoplasia (sp?) on the teeth that rotted, as well as the front teeth.
I think some here are overlooking what could be a major contributing factor to their poor results, child spacing. When you don’t give your body enough time to replenish, the next child will have less nutrients to draw from during development in the womb. 3 years is the recommended spacing for this very reason. It seems that some folks here are railing against the diet theory when as one said, they have 5 children between ages 1.5 and 3.
I have four children. First two, spaced two years. Next spaced 2.5 years. Last spaced almost 3 years.
The two with bad teeth are numbers 1 and 3. Two and four are healthy. That the first child has unhealthy teeth seems to contradict it.
Of course diet plays a role. And nursing, and child spacing, and the particular genetics that child inherits. It seems that there are multiple factors, and some are more predisposed one way or the other.
Loved reading cure tooth decay! Great book!
Larry Underwood, your statement is 100% incorrect. ECC can effect any child, regardless of feeding choice. My son is 2.5 years old, breastfed, never had formula in his life and was diagnosed with 8 cavities when he was 20 months old. It is related to multi-generational malnutrition. I’m a moderator of a larger fb group that is for children with ECC and I’ve seen maybe one person post who’s child was formula fed. It can encompass everyone, from any back round. It is has become an epidemic in this country.
I’m having similar results, but in at a much slower pace. My daughter’s teeth began decaying at 2 years old and I followed the dentists advice for a year (fluoride varnish, mi paste, night weaned). At 3 years of age we got the same diagnosis as above. I immediately began researching and reading Nourishing Traditions and Cure Tooth Decay. Now, 7 months later her cavities appear to be hard and the decay has not gotten any bigger.
someone suggested “return to motherhood, stop giving your kids sugar”. i was in this same boat about a year ago – my little one started having cavities (shortly after i started feeding her homemade cereals at home). she NEVER ate anything with sugar in it, no juice, no candy, no cakes/cookies… NOTHING. but the decay was very quick. thank goodness for people like weston a.price, ramiel nagel, and the healthy home economist, without whom i would still be dealing with cavities!
It’s not always a sugar thing either. Most of the mothers in our group don’t do sugar or processed food. Tooth decay has a lot to do with maternal health during gestation. And every child is different, some may respond very well to Nigel’s protocol and some may have some other underlying factor involved. Just because the enamel continues to erode does not mean progress is not being made internally. We see tooth decay as a whole body issue, especially gut. Also, tooth decay in young children is also linked to celiac disease. So, if mom’s breastfeeding, she absolutely needs to follow Nigel’s plan too.
Our group for anyone who would like to network with other mom’s walking down this path. It is an incredibly emotional issue for most of us, made worse by the idea by some that we feed a poor diet or don’t brush our child’s teeth. This is a safe place to vent, ask questions, offer advice. This is most definitely a Weston A. Price friendly group, but we come from all walks. http://www.facebook.com/groups/523381421012243/?fref=ts
Thank you, Susan! I was just going to message you for that link.
What about kids with lip ties?
My fourth son was breastfed for 3.5 years and had nursing caries. I was mortified. The dentist thought I was giving him bottles of juice and milk at night. Never, only nursing; we don’t consume juice and I don’t buy it. I *did* have iv abx during labor for a kidney infection that no meds would touch during my pregnancy. I have since realized that his being the fourth child combined with the diet of the previous generation or so in my family has contributed. I was beginning to eliminate grains from my own diet, but certainly not all, and did eat lots of eggs, avocados, and salmon along with butter while pg with him. I’m so glad that never believed the “fat is bad for you” hype and have kept it in my diet, along with other good fats, for almost thirty years. However, my vegetarian grain-based diet has wrecked my health and my own teeth. We are a family in transition, since my husband eschews animal flesh and fat, relying on grains and beans for approx. 80% of his diet. I have a ways to go in getting my children on a more traditional diet, but they do get good fats in their diet. I started them on CLO about a month ago, so we’ll see.
Jamie, yes..we talk about that too. It’s a contributing factor in decay and when a child has a lip tie, it’s highly likely there’s a hidden tongue tie present too. A tongue tie can have a huge impact on gut health. There’s an amazing support group on facebook for that too. http://www.facebook.com/groups/tonguetiebabies/?fref=ts
Hi Brandi,
you are the first person whose child did not have good results who has claimed to follow my dietary advice.
Does your child consume bone broth regularly?
Sea foods?
Sea weed?
Liver?
Bone marrow?
Colostrum?
Skate liver oil?
What is your source of calcium?
GAPS may not stop dental problems because their could be a lack of calcium or more subtle trace minerals. GAPS can be a good diet for people but it may not focus the person towards healing cavities.
Dear Mr. Nagel,
“you are the first person whose child did not have good results who has claimed to follow my dietary advice”
For that statement to be true you would need to know every single case who (claimed to have) tried your protocol.
The diet you recommend could never feed any larger population of the earth. Animal products need far too much water and plant material to be produced. They are also a major contributor to global warming (if it is man made, see the film “MEAT the truth”).
Even if your diet would be the only way to heal cavities, I still would choose to live mostly on plant-food. And I do have 2 small cavities right now and I do not intend to see a dentist.
Hi Christy,
Preconception and pregnancy diet makes all the difference when it comes to the health of the child as well as the density of children’s teeth. That is part of why I wrote, “Healing Our Children.” Edward Mellanby found during his research 20′s, 30′s, 40′s that somewhere around 60-70% of children’s teeth are not well formed. The father’s diet and overall health also matters quite a bit. Same with how much stress the mom is in during pregnancy.
When I was pregnant I suffered from nausea and loss of appetite… I had no idea about Weston Price diet (yet) and only when I was maybe 6 months pregant could I gain some weight. I went through a lot of family problems all of which made me (and my little baby) go through tremendous amounts of stress. I received 3 doses of IV antibiotics during labor for a positive Strep B test (and my baby was born via C-Section). I had no idea about this information I just read!
My baby had Weston Price formula since she was 4-5 months and then she began to thrive! No more supermarket formula! My question is… can diet alone prevent and/or fix problems like the ones you described in your post, Rami? I already have your book and am worried not only for what I wrote but also as I notice that sometimes my baby sleeps with her mouth opened… I shut it gently and sometimes she stays with her mouth closed (other times not)… she also seems to have a lip tie. Any help is heartily appreciated!
Thank you for posting the links, Susan. I hadn’t refreshed.
Bam! There’s the man himself! Rami, I want to send a personal and extremely heartfelt “thank you” for everything you’ve done for children and families who suffer from tooth decay. You’ve played a tremendous role in truly nourishing my child. We’ve gone from a child who’s teeth were rabidly crumbling, had an autoimmune response to most foods, and could not digest fruits and vegetables, to a happy little boy who is HEALTHY and thriving, nor more constant sicknesses. Thank you!
Yes, thank you Rami for your excellent research! You have helped many, many people. I used one of your articles in a class I taught today. Thank you, thank you!
*Rapidly. But it seemed rabidly at times.
Nicole Gosling? I haven’t read the links or comments, but thought you might be interested? xx
We are still working on healing a tooth at our house. For quite some time we followed Weston Price, raw milk, cod liver oil, etc, but we have seen more progress and healing and at a faster rate since we started following the recommendations of Ray Peat which means eating sugar and protein together, for instance chocolate milk or sweet milk, and never eating sugar with grains, which is what most people eat that is harmful (cake, cookies). My understanding is that sugar and protein together helps the metabolism and helps the body to heal at a faster rate. Do not confuse this with eating Twinkies and junk food. Everyone is so against sugar, but they have forgotten that our brains need sugar to function.
this is really interesting too. i am sick and tired of the paleo bandwagon, demonizing all sugar and grains. even nuts seeds and beans! Sarah even has an article about why some people think they have to be grain free to be healthy, and why that is just not the case.
To mamas that breastfed and still have cavity issues with their little ones even after some diet changes- Have the babies and children been evaluated properly for LIP TIES and tongue ties?? http://www.mamasaidblog.com/2012/10/look-in-your-babys-mouth-overcoming-lip-and-tongue-tie-with-an-older-baby/
This is really interesting and I’ll be looking into it further! After a dentist’s appointment a couple of weeks ago where I learned my 12 year old has two cavities, I bought the FCLO and butter oil (I’d been wanting to do it but the cost had put me off, however having a really good reason prompted me). However, I think I’ll also look at the approach in Rami Nagel’s book and try and hit the issue head on! He’s going back to the dentist next week to have his teeth cleaned, but at the last appointment she said she’d probably have to make a couple of appointments for him in order to get the fillings done (one cavity was very small and the other quite bad… looks as if the tooth in that instance had some “weakness” that made it prone to decay).
Honestly I’ve had no experience with decay up until now as I never suffered from it myself. My 14 year old son also has not had decay (although he is prone to tartar build up). I think genetics must play a factor as well as diet, as I’m pretty sure my diet was not 100% perfect growing up (although up until the age of 12 or so I was never allowed to drink Coke!) and nor was my dental hygeine always as good as it is now! (For all that, though, both my parents had had extensive decay as kids). I knew one little girl when we were growing up who had dreadful tooth decay and her parents were always taking her to the dentist, making sure she cleaned her teeth, fed her a good diet etc. etc. so I do think multiple factors come into play when it comes to decay and you can’t always blame the parents for feeding their kids crap! (Not that this NEVER occurs of course!)
Actually, our brains can very well function without any carbohydrates in our food – our body can make sugar from protein and fat, but the overall and best brain-fuel comes from fat, that is broken down into ketones. That´s why ketogenic diets work for epilepsy an migraines. Even babies´ brains use ketones at first. What you say about the dangers of eating grains with sugar, especcially whole meal products with sugar, has been known for a long time, but is seldom mentioned. Of course the bacteria in the gut and mouth play an important role as well when it comes to tooth decay.
Wow…….I have never heard of this. But it makes sense and explains why I had such trouble breastfeeding my first child. He’s now 28 so that tells you how old I am, lol.
malting (sprouting) oats for five days at 52 degrees F and then soaking for 17 hours at 120 degrees F removes 98 percent of phytates. Here”s a recipe for Coconut oatmeal pancakes http://www.girlgonecountry.com/recipes-2/gluten-free-coconut-flour-oatmeal-pancake/
My daughter just turned one and has only four teeth. They do seem to have small of discoloration and I was told not to worry. I myself am tongue tied and have awful teeth. I definitely worry she will have dental issues as well. I requested to join the support group in hopes to get some ideas to help her. Thank you so much for posting this!
I can attest to this, since the last time i brought my 8yr old son to the dentist, which was a year ago, he informed me that one of his fillings had fallen out, & that he wanted to replace it as soon as possible. Just before this time i had signed up to receive by email a certain # of pages of the book cure tooth decay. When the dentist said that to me , i asked him to give me some time to see if with diet, i could get my son’s tooth to rebuild . He of course looked at me like i had 7 heads, then told me that i would be back to the dentist within a month & my son would have an abcess tooth that would have to be extracted. My son has had absolutely no pain whatsoever since then. I only wish i had this info yrs ago before i let them put any fillings in his mouth. Even though i have never been able to get him to go grain free, he drinks tons of raw milk & bone broth.
That interesting some still believe even as a part of this community that breastfeeding for a long time causes tooth decay. My son is still breastfeeding at almost 4 and no cavities. We are also not perfect with his diet and he’s a picky eater.
The reason why many women say their teeth go bad after they have kids is they eat a nutritionally bankrupt diet and not because of breastfeeding or pregnancy. Both of these things simply accelerate the process of degeneration under a poor diet. Breastfeeding a child while eating nutritionally worthless foodstuffs literally mines the mineral reserves of the body.
High Brix Nutrient Dense Foods\’s last post: Benefits of High Brix Nutrient Dense Farmed Foods Part 4: Vitamins, Antioxidants and other Phytochemicals
I so need to read up on these post.. Thank you for sharing
I’m in the process of incorporating diet changes as part of my treatment in my practice. I have only had a handful of patients who are interested though. For most, it is easier to get the cavities filled than to start making daily bone broth and take cod liver oil. Some of the more natural minded parents are very willing to try though, and so soon, over the next few months and years, I will find out if its working. I have a lot of faith in the Weston Price way of eating; this is how we eat at our home, and my children don’t have cavities. I will have to admit something I know some of you won’t like though
I am trying to tackle the small cavities from the inside (diet changes), and the from the outside (xylitol gum and fluoride varnish txt at the office). If I can get the teeth of my patients to remineralize with diet only, I will eventually drop the xylitol and varnish. For now, I’m still recommending it because I’ve personally seen it work. I believe the present paradigm of how dentistry is done has to change. We should not be rewarded more if we are more invasive. We have to strive for teaching prevention.
Harmony,
I hope you can help me out. My 7 year old son has struggled with cavities since he was 3. I breast-fed him for a year, and since he has food allergies/sensitivities since a baby, I have been using organic fruits and vegetables, grass-fed meats, free range chickens and eggs, and a year ago I was finally able to get raw milk, although at present we are living in Germany and I have not been able to get it. He doesn’t get candy except for Halloween and Easter and rarely has juice, and even rarely has a soda.
His dentist thinks the problem is reflux. I don’t want to put him on medications, so I’ve tried raw apple cider mixed with water and honey, which his dentist recommended as she is very open to natural methods, but he just wouldn’t drink it. We went gluten-free, but I don’t know if that has had much effect. He is due for another dental appointment, but we are in Germany temporarily (non-military) and can’t take him until we return at the end of February. He did not have any cavities last visit in May. I am currently giving him tea with ganoderma that an American friend here in Germany gave me, because it helped her with reflux.
My question is: given these circumstances, and that fact that we eat pretty healthy already, will this diet help my son? I would like to know if it would help before spending money only to be disappointed. Also, my husband is very skeptical of everything, and I need to have something substantial to present to him.
I would appreciate you input very much. I have been stressing over this for years and want desperately to take care of the problem instead of covering it up with meds and constant fillings.
Thanks for sharing this with us. It is always helpful to hear of others success!!
Great post! Nigel’s book is excellent and very helpful for anyone who wants to learn to heal teeth. I wanted to add that three things I’ve seen assist in remineralization are the GAPS protocol (b/c of its high fat, high collagen, high use of CLO diet), white oak bark (a botanical medicine known for its remineralization properties), and oil pulling with coconut oil (detoxes mouth/body and can strengthen teeth).
Also, for anyone not yet using Blue Ice CLO, I love and recommend the cinnamon variety of Blue Ice fermented CLO/butter oil gel. My kids beg for it daily, and my husband loves it…he’d gobble it down if I didn’t tell him how expensive it was, LOL!!
Gabi\’s last post: Fat Is Your Friend!
I found a variety of inexpensive, homemade organic tooth powders and soaps on Etsy–just thought I’d let everyone know!
I hope someone can help me out or point me in the right direction. My 7 year old son has struggled with cavities since he was 3. I breast-fed him for a year, and since he has food allergies/sensitivities since a baby, I have been using organic fruits and vegetables, grass-fed meats, free range chickens and eggs, and a year ago I was finally able to get raw milk. He doesn’t get candy except for Halloween and Easter and rarely has juice, and even rarely has a soda.
His dentist thinks the problem is reflux. I don’t want to put him on medications, so I’ve tried raw apple cider mixed with water and honey, which his dentist recommended as she is very open to natural methods, but he just wouldn’t drink it. We went gluten-free, but I don’t know if that has had much effect. He is due for another dental appointment, but we are in Germany temporarily (non-military) and can’t take him until we return at the end of February. He did not have any cavities last visit in May. I am currently giving him tea with ganoderma that an American friend here in Germany gave me, because it helped her with reflux. We also cannot get raw milk right now.
My question is: given these circumstances, will this diet help my son? I would like to know if it would help before spending money only to be disappointed. Also, my husband is very skeptical of everything, and I need to have something substantial to present to him.
Thanks!
I have a dentist who follows Weston Price himself and he knows how powerful this knowledge is. He also never just fill teeth if damage can be reversed.
I felt the need to comment. My daughters tooth decay started at 18 months however, she was born with Lyme disease. We are an herbal/homeopathic family. I tried the GAPS protocol but for her it was too acid forming. When I added lots of greens and removed meats, I kept the cod liver oil and added non GMO vitamin K it really helped. I also removed grains. I actually saw her teeth start to remineralize. Unfortunately, my husband was not helpful and sabotaged my attempts progress so we ended up pulilng some teeth. Horrible experience. Anyway, during this time I was testing her oral PH which was around 4. I think that for some people they may need more vegetables and less meat. While I follow a Weston Price type diet my daughter has a different constitution and blood type than I do and seems to do better on a more vegetables based diet. Just a thought.
I wonder, for the people that are struggling after diet change, if there are additional underlying problems. For example, maybe your body isn’t absorbing nutrient’s like with Celiac’s or other autoimmune diseases. Maybe working on something like the GAPS diet or cutting out certain foods to see if anything specific bothers you or your children could help. Just something that’s been on my mind as of late…
My daughter, 4 years, was recently diagnosed with four cavities the dentist wants to fill and two smaller ones beginning. I am reading the book you suggest, but I do not want to add organ meat in our diet. I am looking into adding the cod liver oil and butter oil to get concentrated amounts of the fat soluble vitamins immediately. Can you explain more of what you changed in your diet? I am a mom who wants my child’s cavities to heal without fillings. Please help.
I’ve been hearing about very young children’s teeth crumbling and falling out of their mouths now for the last few years, and have been very disturbed by it. These are people I personally know who know others with this problem. Nearly 3 years ago, my parents had a neighbor (who has since moved away) whose third child was born with basically no enamel on his teeth and his teeth started crumbling apart, and he was only a little over a year old. The family was very distraught and didn’t know what to do. I mentioned the Ramiel Nagel book to my mother, lent it to her, and also said that she was welcome to loan it to her neighbor. She said she didn’t think the mother would be interested. How sad is that? Not only did my mother not mention this book to the family, but I am pretty sure nothing has changed and that little boy will likely always have severe tooth issues. I guess some people just don’t want to know.
I watched my own teeth and gums go from getting fairly regular small cavities and daily bleeding with brushing to no more cavities and only rare bleeding (if something gets lodged in my gum, like a popcorn hull, it will fester and then release the troublesome bit, then no more bleeding). We have been eating a WPF type diet for years but we live at a very northern latitude (62 degrees N) and I never got enough vitamin D. When I started supplementing with D-3 (50K once a week at first, then doubled that for a few more years) my teeth and gums normalized. I floss, but irregularly, and I frequently miss my night time brushing but my teeth and gums are the healthiest they’ve ever been.
Bone broth, LOTS of coconut oil, bacon fat and pastured butter (plus fclo), minimal sugar and grains, and lots of cooked greens are also what I attribute the change to.
I also need to add that I am 55 now and my dental problems had been occurring since childhood. They were exacerbated by having four children in under six years (from age 36 to almost 42). I had just found Nourishing Traditions around the time I conceived my now 16yo. but implementing it took time and I was completely unfamiliar with healthy child spacing.
My 18 year old (the oldest of these four) had the worst of the decay issues in my kids. She was also the only one of them who received a regular immunization schedule AND I let her eat chewable vitamin C. Those are the only differences I have been able to come up with between her and her younger siblings. She chooses a very good diet now and her adult teeth are healthy and strong but her poor little baby teeth had issues with decay.
Hope this helps someone and gives hope and/or a warning to others.
Great article, any suggestions for healthy fluoride free toothpaste? Baking Soda, any one in particular?
Thanks
Ramiel Nagel has a nice toothpaste product he came up with. Or you can try to make your own using tinctures of cloves, chaparral, turmeric, cayenne pepper, myrrh, cardamon and Pascalite clay. I get my tinctures form Herb Pharm.
Please don’t talk down dentists. My husband is a dentist and while most of you think “he is just trying to make money” or acts like a “used car salesman” he is actually trying to help you. One of the best ways to avoid tooth decay is obviously diet. HELLO! I don’t think that is rocket science! The worst he has seen in his office is parents who give their child bottles with milk or juice to bed. He had one lady who was 25 and didn’t want to take proper care of her teeth or change her diet. She had all her teeth pulled for dentures. Isn’t that sad? At 25 dentures. Do you think he wanted to pull all of those teeth for her? No! There was no other option. If you are not going to take care of your teeth you cannot leave the problems in your teeth and just think they will “go away.” Severe infections can lead to systemic infections, bone loss and many other problems. What I’m trying to say is yes try this method! Change your diet! And if it doesn’t work? Visit your dentist. If you think he is too expensive, or “a used car salesman,” find a different one because there are a lot of good dentists who actually care about you. And I know many of you will not like this, but guess what fluoride actually does work !! It is the best way to prevent cavities.
this is amazing! but makes me sad because my son (who we brushed his teeth 2-3 times a day) dentist said he had an enamel defect. the enamel would just peal off his teeth. but anyways 3 dentist later at only 20 months he had to have oral sugery and had his front four teeth removed! I cant even explain how horrible I felt! he on the other hand felt 100 times better. his father and family on his fathers side all have teeth enamel problems also multiple abseced teeth which my son also had in his front two teeth they could see in the xray. I wish I would have found this and tried it first! but my son again has issue with a new molar and we are definitely starting this right away!! thanks you times a million!
{ 4 trackbacks }